So Close!

1st Nov 2010

We have but one leg remaining before finishing the trip (for now) and getting to PILGRIM’s new home at River Quays Marina, near Gladesville but the weather is terrible!

Today is Monday; I had hoped to be away by Weds but it’s looking more like Saturday from what the weather is telling me.

Very frustrating and in some way ironic as here in Port Stephens, is where we were ‘stranded’ northbound with all the engine woes. I can’t really complain about the weather then can I?

A Dark, Dark Night and the RADAR out

29th Oct 2010

Lets start with a brief revisit to the beauties of Laurieton: As the photo left shows, it is indeed a great spot with seas, waterways, mountains and friendly folk – I will return!

With an eye on the weather I went for a morning walk, not fully convinced that we shouldn’t leave this afternoon (rather than early tomorrow) as strong winds were forecast for later Saturday. By the time I returned I had the view (supported by another departing south bound boat) that we should up and go ASAP. By 12:15 we were motoring out against the incoming tidal flow.

The day and the night went reasonably well with NNE winds to about 15 kts max (giving us about 10 kts apparent) and seas around 1.5 to 2 m although a bigger one rolled PILGRIM around every 20 swells or so. With an ETA of 01:00, I elected a 1 hrs rotation so that we both might get a couple of hours off before making port at Nelsons Bay.

The only really notable thing about the night was that it was dark, very dark with no moon and extensive cloud cover. This is not a major drama but does make things just that little bit less comfortable, particularly with a rolly sea and a good deal of traffic about. Of the latter, the AIS and RADAR were both up, as is SOP (Standard Operating Procedures) for PILGRIM at night but by the third watch the RADAR had fallen over and left us almost totally blind. Fortunately the problem was fixed with a cold reset but for this I needed to wait for Paul to wake up as I needed someone at the helm while I attended to the reset, in the meantime I spent the remainder of my watch staring forward into the dark dark night.

On arrival at Port Stephens, it was good (as ever) to be wrapped in that comforting sense of enclosure as we passed the heads of Tomaree and Yakaaba. Following the markers in, we first checked the public wharf for space but finished up on a mooring and by about 03:00, after some ‘post flight’ matters, we were both in our bunks and well and truly ready for a sleep.

Blast off.

27th Oct 2010

By necessity, today begins with a prelude:

Yesterday being our last day in Port Mac. We decided that a $10 channel cruise might be just the thing for dinner. With fish, chips and beer we boarded for the ‘geriatric excursion’ among the channel developments of Port. Talking to the skipper ( and owner of the business which included some 9 vessels) it turned out he was an ex RAN pilot off a course a few ahead of mine. With this rapport established we chatted about boats and planes and agreed that both were fun, particularly when they moved fast!

With an aim to catch both tides at optimal , we left Port about 08:30 and motored out across a completely tranquil Bar and into and equally calm sea with the ambition of making Laurieton just before High tide. As our fortune was as good as the day, the plan came to pass with a very easy and very pleasant 3 hrs sail to the Laurieton RSL wharf, where we so enjoyed our stay when Northbound.

So back to the start: As we left the bar, John (my new found ex pilot mate) came up beside PILGRIM in one of his several high speed ribs, with a load of paying passengers on a whale watching trip. After a brief chat he bid me good bye with a ‘semi’ salute and in a the context of our conversation of yesterday, slammed the 500 hp throttles open and blast off like the A4 jet he once flew. In a blink, all that was left was floury of foam and a group a rapidly departing, and doubtlessly wide eyed passengers travelling at high speed toward the reported whales sightings.

Yee Ha!

Things that go bump in the night

23nd Oct 2010


After our record breaking speed of yesterday, the late night and early morning had us a little off the pace but still maintaining a very good 7+kts. The moon was full and with AIS and Radar humming, traffic was no problem so while we avoided hitting the big stuff, we did hit something through the night. I suspect it was a fishing float or similar as the impact on the hull sounded hard and though trivial in the retelling, it did tend to bring me up to a high alert state when I first heard it. Other than that the night was a good one and with the great speed we actually passed Coffs at about 03:45 ESST having elected to ‘push on’ to Port Macquarie.

This decision and our ultimate arrival around 13:30 saw the making of a number of new records for the trip. The furthest at 222nm, the fastest at an overall on track average of 7.3kts and the longest, although only just, at 31 hours.

On arrival at Port Macquarie, we were amused to find that the ‘Dad’s Army’ Marine rescue folk had not managed to lift their standards as set on our north bound trip. The interaction with ourselves and two other inbound cruisers was such that it was he first thing every spoke (and laughed) about on meeting once ashore but enough of all that as I’m sure they mean well!

The next trip is a short one down to Camden Haven as it was a place that still rates highly on my ‘must visit again’ list.

Cowabunga Dudes – A record ride on the East Australian Current

22nd Oct 2010


With really good weather forecast we were probably a little to keen to get going as a really good run would set us up for a pre-dawn arrival into Coffs. None the less we were out of the Seaway just after 06:00 EST and set off in good conditions with the now familiar morning ‘land breeze’ westerly pushing us nicely. With the wind expected to swing NE the prospect for a good run was always on the cards but with the NE’s only light, I elected to keep the Yanmar going at a low 1800 rpm just to make sure we achieved planned speed. This, it turned out was not at all necessary (by a long margin) as we picked up a ride on the East Aussie Current.

The current, as every one knows from Nimo, is a perpetual feature of our East coast but just where it is and how fast it flows, varies significantly, in fact ‘chaotically’. The BOM site has a sea surface temp forecast from which they extrapolate the current and as can be seen, it was straight down the coast past Ballina. In the absence of such forecasts, the rule of thumb is that it can be found on the 200m line (depth) but we were only in about 50m when we got a peak ride of 2.5 knots. With the wind (and the Yanmar) this gave us a RECORD ground speed of 8.5 kts. A speed we maintained for most of the daylight hours.

Trepidation

19th / 20th Oct 2010

Today (19th ), we waited for an afternoon departure in order to address the issue of the ‘Shallows’ down to the Gold Coast Seaway. For reasons I couldn’t pin down, as we waited I was in an uncomfortable frame of mind all morning about our plan (My Plan!). Noting that the shoals at Jacobs Well are but 800mm at low tide, we needed at least a 1m of tide to even hope to make it across, let alone do it with any degree of comfort. What we also needed was to make it through the shallows and on to the Gold Coast before dark as the navigation here is just too intricate for non-locals at night.(Note the labyrith in the Google image left)

The prediction I had, had a High of just under 1.3 at around 18:30 but I just couldn’t achieve total confidence in the data as there were a number of conflicts. This data, you see, was critical as my plan was to cross the shoals at 16:30 to give us time to get to our anchorage and although not full, the tide should be just adequate - by my calculations!

Now, when it comes to tides, there are principal port (real data) , secondary ports (valid differentials from nearby ‘real data’) and place where one simply has to extrapolate from what ever information is available. Jacobs well, as treacherous as it is, is one of the latter and as a result, there were a number of anomalies in the data I had, across both time a magnitude. As both these were critical, I fidgeted all morning and just kept looking until eventually, with the aid of a site that Paul found and a phone call to Jacob’s Well, I finally determined the tide to be much later at nearly 19:15. With this new knowledge I amended the plan to motor to the start of the shoals, anchor for the night and cross on the morning tide which I now confidently knew to be 08:05.

With morning (20th), we found a grey, wet and windy day as we executed the plan. I am pleased to report we did this and achieved exactly the results I was seeking. This was made a little tough by low visibility in the rain but all in all it went off well. The remainder of the trip down the channel was mostly straight forward but for some more heavy rain and a few winds gusts up to 27 kts or so.

Anchoring in what known among cruisers as ”Bum’s Bay” just off Sea World, we are drying out and enjoying some hot drinks as we settle in for the day.

Balance of Trade made Manifest.

18th Oct 2010


Yesterday might have worked but today was better so up we were up at 04:45 and off the berth by 05:15. Setting course across Morton Bay, our destination was to be a quite spot in the northern end of the Broadwater shallows some 63 nm away. Once underway, the day was good with smooth water and very light albeit adverse, winds for all but a few hours when the morning land breeze gave us a push along.

Perhaps unexpectedly, crossing Morton Bay is actually something of a challenge as large areas of it are too shallow for all but runabouts. This meant that I needed a couple of hours over the plotter and some new charts before settling on a route that, out of necessity, zigged and zagged considerably. Now, almost by default, this also meant that we would use or approximate the channel route used by heavy shipping into and out of Brisbane. This is not a problem on a clear day as there is plenty of room to move out of the way but it was one that provided quite a spectacle when Pilgrim intersected in time and space with two ‘heavies’ overtaking as the picture shows and this leads me to the Balance of Trade.

Shortly after the event pictured, we had opposite direction traffic in the form of yet another large container ship outbound. The fact that all three of these monsters met at a relatively tight corner of the channel was interesting to watch but as Paul pointed out, what we had before us was a statement on the Australian economy. With the dollar so high, two ships in and one out meant that Australia is spending up big, a negative Balance of payments. This, as every schoolboy economist knows, does not auger well for our debt reduction program. Anyway, back to boats!

In the Southern end of the bay we encountered many small craft as the day was idyllic and even saw a misguided whale. Misguided as the whales are south bound and Morton bay doesn’t provide a route South. Maybe just resting?

Arriving at our destination I was surprise by the beauty of the place and the resultant population density. As all these places are islands, so this also meant an extremely high density of ferries and vehicle carriers moving at high speed from dawn to dusk. Still this didn’t disturb our night one bit as we slept well in the tranquil waters. We are also here tomorrow morning as we can’t leave until after lunch. This is because the track south to the Gold Coast includes some very shallow water. (there is a spot with only 1.3 of water and as Pilgrim draws 1.7) so we simply must wait for the tide which is due late this afternoon. No problem as we only have about a 4 hour run.

Wind, Wet and Waiting.

11th Oct 2010

Arriving back today, I was greeted upon touch down in Mooloolaba, with howling winds and pouring rain. It seems this has been the story for some days and having now looked at the forecast, it will likely be the case for some days yet. This of course means being hunkered down in the marina for a while and after a long absence from sailing, this is not good! But -  such is life (on a boat)!